Coward

Noel Coward (1899-1973), playwright and actor, personified an elegant, witty and faintly outrageous way of life between the wars. He first achieved fame starring in his own play "The Vortex" in 1924, which he followed with "Hay Fever"(1925) and "Private Lives" (1930). A patriotic vein evident in his stage extravaganza "Cavalcade" (1931) came into its own with the wartime film "In Which We Serve" (1942); from the same period is his classic "Brief Encounter"(1945). He was also an accomplished cabaret performer, singing at the piano his own lyrics such as 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen'.